Digital video streams typically represent video using a sequence of frames (i.e., still images). An increasing number of applications today make use of digital video stream encoding for purposes other than traditional moving pictures (such as movies and video clips). For example, video conferencing applications generally format one or more video sources and other digital information for display on a monitor and transmit the formatted data as a digital video stream, irrespective of the specialized nature of the video sources or digital information displayed. Similar video encoding algorithms are often used. However, when sending traditional moving pictures over a network, it generally doesn't matter when the video stream is generated or that it is not real-time. This fact can be taken advantage of by the service provider. The service provider can, for example, pre-encode a whole movie to save central processing unit (CPU) cycles since the same pre-encoded stream can be sent to anyone who wants to see the same movie. In addition, buffering on the client side can occur before playing a movie to compensate for bursty networks and allow for loss-less transport protocols. In video conferencing applications, these things cannot be done due to the real-time nature of video conferencing. In general, even a delay of a couple of seconds degrades the video conferencing experience.